Arts & Culture

Best Buddies welcomes inclusive and lifelong friendships for all students

By Ryan HaRdison

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

College can be an isolating experience at times, and with so many tasks and obligations, it’s hard to find the time to make new friends. SDSU Best Buddies hopes to solve that problem for students.

SDSU Best Buddies is a club that pairs college students into one-to-one friendships with students who have developmental and intellectual disabilities to create a fun community that hangs out every week.

They are a chapter of Best Buddies International, a 501(c)(3) non profit organization founded in 1989 and they’re intent on creating one-on-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development, inclusive living for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The SDSU chapter has only been around since 2013 but has been considerably successful.

One member of the club is first year city planning graduate student Wesley Cooksy, who has been part of Best Buddies since 2018. Cooksy recently passed his certification and completed training with Best Buddies International to become a State Ambassador. This means he’ll serve a two-year term where he gets to represent the organization.

Cooksy said Best Buddies presents a peaceful space for any student who might be weary of other areas of social life.

“If you’re intimidated by the sports life culture or Greek life culture, this is an opportunity for you to still feel connected with campus,” Cooksy said.

Though being assigned duties as part of the club may sound stressful, Cooksy says that the amount of “work” for the club is pretty simple and extremely beneficial, and has helped him learn a lot about other club members.

“There’s a requirement that every week you try to find time to meet with that buddy and just talk, there’s no special questionnaires or anything, it’s just meet up and talk,” Cooksy said.

Morgan Hughes, a junior studying business management and minoring in statistics, has been a part of Best Buddies since the second semester of her freshman year. She now serves as the club’s Vice President of Internal Affairs.

Hughes describes Best Buddies as a friendship club that’s open to anybody. She says the buddies’ smiling faces always help to lift her up on bad days and provide a welcoming environment built on friendship and acceptance.

One of the ways these friendships are forged is through the club’s yearly match party where members are paired up to become close pals.

“One of the best parts of being in the club is that when you join you get a one-on-one friendship with one of the buddies,” Hughes said. “We look through your interests and we have this surprise match party where you get paired with a buddy so we’re thinking of some fun things to do to make it exciting for everybody.”

Last year, like all clubs on campus, Best Buddies had to meet using Zoom. Still, they managed to make it work. They sent out weekly newsletters and kept members engaged through social media, and organized activities like karaoke and kahoot planned as well as a theme for each Zoom meeting. Through their persistence, Best Buddies maintained an average of 60 to 80 members who attended weekly.

Paige Oberg is a fourth year nursing student who joined Best Buddies her freshman year because she was inspired by the club’s inclusion aspect. Now as club president, Oberg hopes to keep Best Buddies just as approachable. Oberg says one of the reasons Zoom effectively worked is because they gave buddies who may have social anxiety or are more on the quiet side the opportunity to tune in and out when needed.

“When somebody struggles with sensory issues it can be hard to be in person, whereas being online gives them the option to find their safe space or the safe stimulation that they need in their home,” Oberg said. In her leadership, Oberg stresses the importance of having friends with different abilities than yourself, something which she says is not discussed nearly enough. She also believes that the friendships made as part of the club have the strength to last a lifetime.

“In college I think that most of us come in looking for friendships that are going to last a lifetime and I don’t think that Best Buddies is an exception,” Oberg said. “A lot of the buddies that I’ve met all of them are going to be lifelong friends of mine and lifelong friends with each other.”

Best Buddies have a lot planned for the 2021-22 school year. Sept. 29 is their annual match party event where students and peer buddies are connected with regular attending members. Follow their instagram @sdsu_bestbuddies for more updates.

SDSU Best Buddies welcomed prospective members with ice cream and cookies during their first meeting of the fall semester on Wednesday Sept. 8.

Photo by Zoe Damon

Court is in session for Mock Trial club

By CRistina LomBaRdo

ASST. ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

After a year of gathering virtually, student organizations finally have the chance to reunite in person. The Mock Trial Club is experiencing this firsthand as members meet every Monday over Zoom and Wednesday in person to prepare for the semester.

Competing in mock trials requires a lot of work and can seem like a hassle, but the mock trial club at SDSU is different. It’s a diverse group of individuals making those who join feel welcomed and supported with a common goal in mind.

The first couple of meetings can be a little intense. Being in person again allows students to experience Mock Trial at its fullest.

The vice president of recruitment, Cate Oveson, a third year sociology major, said she knew this year will be better.

“It was definitely a little strange meeting everyone virtually rather than in person. I can’t say how the experience for a newbie will be this year while we’re in person,” Oveson said. “I will say that in-person meetings so far, I do think it’s a lot more fun to meet people in person. I think with clubs like mock trial it is generally a better experience to do stuff like that in person.”

Imagine sitting in a courtroom as a witness or an attorney, all dressed up, waiting to hear the verdict of a case. Seems unlikely for college students to experience so early, right? With the Mock Trial Club, students get the experience of being in a courtroom and gaining practical trial experience.

The teams for this year have been slightly tweaked than in previous years. In the past if you auditioned, the club would split people up into two teams: witnesses and attorneys. Mock Trial Club President Sophie Jeltema, a senior studying in political science and philosophy, noted that there is an additional team this year but anyone can have their time to shine.

“We have three teams this year, the third team will not be competing and will just be alternates. So they’ll fill in when someone can’t make it or if people drop the club. That’s how you get involved,” Jeltema said.

Joining this club is a process, but it’s not impossible. There’s an audition, where students prepare an opening statement, a theory of a case and few other things to present to the executive board. Students are notified if they are accepted and during the first meeting, roles will be assigned.

After all that’s established, it’s time to actually get to work. Mock trial is all about teamwork while getting courtroom experience. These competitions enable people to discover their strengths, and explore new avenues for themselves. Many find themselves learning skills like how to write opening and closing statements, courtroom etiquette, competition scoring and public speaking.

Each meeting, members prepare and study the court case that’s assigned for the year so when competition comes around in November the teams are prepared to face other schools. Their first competition will be hosted virtually by UC San Diego.

It may seem intimidating at first but the experience and the people make it all worth it. Caili Anderson, a political science junior minoring in sociology and marketing, joined as a freshman and made her way to become the vice president of communications this year. When Anderson came to SDSU, she looked up the club’s website, saw them tabling and decided to get involved. She said she doesn’t regret it one bit.

“Mock trial is just really fun, I made so many friends because of it,” Anderson said. “You would think you wouldn’t, while coming into it. I was like everyone thinks mock trial is this nerdy club and all these nerds but everyone is really cool.”

For these members, mock trials are an opportunity to learn new things, to better oneself and to meet all different kinds of people interested in one common goal: to win a competition.

“The team aspect of it. I love working with everyone in mock trials. We’ve always been a really strong team,” Jeltema said. “Both in court and as a group in general, it’s always been really easy to get along with everyone, we’re all likeminded individuals.”

Even though auditions have already passed, they are always welcoming new members. Every Wednesday at 7 p.m. they hold in-person meetings in the Metztli suite in the Aztec Student Union. Check out their Instagram @sdsumocktrial for more information.

Photo by Cristina Lombardo The president of Mock Trial, Sophie Jeltema (in white), talking to new members during the first meeting.

The Look Magazine showcases different artists

The Look Magazine offers opportunities for students to develop their artistic projects and gain inspiration.

By FLoweR smitH

STAFF WRITER

Are you a student at San Diego State who is interested in art, fashion and culture? If so, then The Look Magazine will definitely be the place for you.

The Look Magazine is SDSU’s brand new student-run art, culture and fashion magazine. It’s where student writers, designers and photographers collaborate on creating a full-scale magazine each semester. The magazine will heavily revolve around students’ talents and provide a creative outlet to those who want to showcase their skills.

Journalism and media studies junior and president Sophia Pinto got the idea of starting a student-run magazine her freshman year. After a long awaited time of processing and planning the logistics of the magazine, Pinto finally has the chance to enact her idea.

“I didn’t see any type of art, fashion, culture magazine at SDSU,” Pinto said. “I saw some at Stanford and USC and that’s where I got my inspiration from.”

Alexandra Dunlop is a junior studying graphic design and the creative director for The Look Magazine.

“Our idea is to just encompass anything creative that’s coming from SDSU students and give them a place to showcase it in collaboration with other creative students working on the magazine,” Dunlop said.

The staff said one primary goal of The Look Magazine is allowing creative freedom and collaboration between their team and other SDSU students. There is an emphasis on creative expression and allowing students to share their perspectives and voices on campus through artistry.

Marketing junior and vice president of public relations Katherine Peng describes The Look’s content about focusing on students’ talents and skills.

“The magazine will be centered around SDSU students and the creativity that is all around campus,” Peng said. “It is not limited to just fashion. It will be fashion, art, music, film, and people who play instruments.”

The new staff said there is a place for everyone at The Look Magazine, from those who want to contribute to the blogs to those who want to learn more about producing online and print magazine content.

“People are constantly welcome to submit their own work,” Dunlop said. The Look Magazine’s website will highlight weekly blogs from their diverse team of writers who will write student art spotlights and cover campus activities revolving around the arts, culture and fashion.

The Look Magazine also encourages SDSU students to submit their own art and to have it submitted as a blog post. “We are going to do a lot of outreach at first to try to get people to submit their art, their creativity and their projects because that is what is going to keep our magazine running,“ Peng said.

This upcoming school year, The Look is planning to host fundraisers, events and meetings that are open to the general student population to drive more traction to the magazine and the talented individuals highlighted in it.

With this project being so new, there is a lot of excitement for what’s to come from the magazine.

“We’re just excited to create this creative community where everybody can have their input and just have this space for students,” Dunlop said.

To keep updated on The Look Magazine and its content, check out their Instagram @thelooksdsu.

Graphic by The Look Magazine The Look Magazine will be putting out their first full-scale magazine during the fall 2021 semester.